Is Georgia Governor Nathan Deal Purging Local Control of Public Schools?

Governor Nathan Deal has put together a ballot question this November. It sounds pretty good at first glance.

Innocently, it seems to ask if you are for fixing failing schools. Who wouldn’t vote for that right? Consequently, all the power is given to Governor Nathan Deal. Local school boards, the state superintendent, and the taxpayers of that district won’t have a say. Nathan Deal is marginalizing the role of State Superintendent Richard Wood’s position. Woods was the anti-common core choice in the last election cycle. Woods received more votes then Governor Nathan Deal at the ballot box.

Governor Nathan Deal doubles down when facing harsh criticism.

Criticism for his pro common core stance and power grab gets push back. Governor Nathan Deal is not interested in listening to elected voters. The harsher the criticism the more he doubles down. If you sit down and shut up you are rewarded. Speaking out means punishment.

In a backhanded compliment, Deal credited local superintendents with keeping out of the fray, or, as he put it, “They’ve kept their mouths shut even if they don’t agree with it.”

But the clearly agitated governor noted that some school board members had spoken critically in newspaper articles about the state takeover proposal.

Deal said people should ask these critics if they send their children or grandchildren to a failing school. “I can almost guarantee you the answer will be no,” said the governor, who was raised by two school teachers and whose wife, Sandra, is a retired teacher. (He noted that the choral director for the group that sang The Star-Spangled Banner ahead of his speech had been a student in his wife’s sixth grade classroom.)

Georgia Educator and conservative activist Jeremy Spencer joined me to discuss how Governor Nathan Deal’s Opportunity School District proposal is hurting Georgia.